AMD's Back in Black

We first reported on a possible new addition to AMD's Athlon 64 X2 line-up back in July. The rumored chip was somewhat of a surprise, since official AMD roadmaps clearly pegged the 6000+ as the last member of the Athlon 64 X2 family as we currently know it, with no further additions until the Phenom was out in force. The rumors have turned out to be true, however, and today AMD is officially launching the new Athlon 64 X2 6400+ Black Edition. (Click Image For An Enlarged View)

Clocking in at 3.2GHz, the 6400+ receives a 200MHz bump up from the 6000+, but not much else. Built on AMD's current 90nm DSl SOI technology with a single HyperTransport link at 2.0GHz, 2MB of L2 cache (1MB per core) and a 125W TDP, not much has changed from the 6000+. The 6400+ is intended to bolster AMD's current high-end line-up and better compete with Intel's Core 2 Duo E6850, at least until Phenom arrives.

The 6400+ will take up a position at $239 (1000-unit PIB quantities), a healthy 34% increase over the 6000+ which currently costs $178. AMD will only be offering the 6400+ as a PIB WOF Black Edition product through the channel, however. Which, in plain English, means the processor is offered in a swanky Black Edition box with no heatsink and fan included. While details on the mysterious 'Black Edition' branding are sparse, we do know it will be a "special edition" product, which in this case will likely mean it will only be available in limited quantities.

Unfortunately, AMD isn't sampling the 6400+ to the press, so we aren't able to bring you our usual suite of benchmarks and tests. However, it has been said that the 6400+ will perform roughly 10%-15% below Intel's E6850 and about 7% faster than the Athlon 64 X2 6000+. This is a nice gain, since the 6000+ currently has trouble keeping up with Intel's E6750. At $239, the Athlon 64 X2 6400+ is also cheaper than the Core 2 E6850, which currently has a street price of around $280.